Eventually a cookbook called Making Salsa: Recipes & Other Bad Decisions needs a sauce that begins innocently with peaches and ends with somebody standing beside the barbecue saying:
“I may have added a little bourbon.”
This sweet, tangy, slightly smoky sauce is excellent on grilled chicken, pork chops, ribs, burgers or pulled pork. And despite the impressive-sounding name, the entire operation basically involves putting things in a saucepan and stirring occasionally.
⏱️ Recipe Information
Yield: Approximately 2 cups
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20–25 minutes
Cooling Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 45–50 minutes
The cooking time allows the peaches, bourbon, tomatoes, seasonings and other ingredients to simmer together until the fruit softens and the sauce thickens.
The cooling period allows the sauce to cool slightly before blending, if a smoother consistency is desired. Use caution when blending hot liquids.
The recipe should yield approximately 2 cups of BBQ sauce, enough for several meals or a generous batch of grilled chicken, ribs or pulled pork.
Ingredients
- 2 ripe peaches, peeled and diced — or about 1½ cups frozen peaches, thawed
- 1 cup ketchup
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup bourbon
- 2 tbsp molasses or maple syrup
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 small clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper, optional
Into the Pot
Put everything into a medium saucepan and stir.
Bring it to a gentle simmer over medium-low heat.
Reduce the heat and cook uncovered for about 20–25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the peaches are very soft and the sauce has thickened slightly.
Do not wander too far away.
Barbecue sauce contains sugar, and sugar left unattended on a stove has an extraordinary ability to convert a perfectly pleasant Wednesday into an incident report.
Make It Saucy
Remove the saucepan from the heat.
For a smooth barbecue sauce, carefully blend it with an immersion blender until smooth.
No immersion blender? Let the mixture cool somewhat and use a regular blender, or simply mash the peaches thoroughly with a potato masher and embrace a more rustic sauce.
Return it to low heat for another 5 minutes if you'd like it thicker.
Remember that it will thicken further as it cools.
🔥 Using It on the Grill
When grilling chicken, pork chops or ribs, don't slather this sauce on at the beginning.
Cook the meat most of the way first, then brush the sauce on during approximately the last 5–10 minutes, turning and brushing on another layer as needed.
The sugars will caramelize beautifully.
Put it on too early and they'll burn beautifully.
These are different outcomes.
🌙 Moonboot Modification: No Bourbon Required
Replace the bourbon with ¼ cup apple juice or peach juice.
You'll still have an excellent peach barbecue sauce, although the recipe name becomes considerably less useful when attempting to impress company.
🌶️ Turn Up the Bad Decision
For a hotter version, add:
- 1 finely minced jalapeño, or
- ½ tsp cayenne, or
- A few generous shakes of your favourite hot sauce.
Start cautiously.
You can always make barbecue sauce hotter.
Getting the heat back out requires advanced technology currently unavailable to the World HQ Research Department.
🫙 Storage
Let the sauce cool completely, transfer it to a clean jar or covered container and refrigerate.
Use within about one week, or freeze portions for later.
And yes, this would be particularly good stirred into some leftover Recipe #14 pulled pork.
That isn't repeating a recipe.
That's called vertical integration.
From the Captain's Log
Homemade barbecue sauce is one of those things that sounds considerably more difficult than it actually is.
People see you bring out a jar and say:
“You MADE the barbecue sauce?”
This is your opportunity to nod modestly.
There is absolutely no requirement to explain that you dumped everything into one saucepan and spent most of the cooking time drinking coffee.
Some details are proprietary.
World HQ protects its trade secrets. 😁🍑🔥
🚨 WORLD HQ FILING NOTICE: Recipe #15 gives Making Salsa: Recipes & Other Bad Decisions from Captain Moonboot its first dedicated barbecue sauce, opening up the sauce/grilling department without duplicating any of our first fourteen recipes.